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Shortage Of Teachers Hits The Country As TSC Boss Hard Pressed Over Teacher’s Pay Deal

BY Getrude Mathayo · April 29, 2021 11:04 am

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The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) CEO Nancy Macharia was put to the task by MPs over delays in the teachers' pay deal negotiations as well as lack of recruitment of commissioners.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) CEO Nancy Macharia was put to the task by MPs over delays in the teachers’ pay deal negotiations as well as lack of recruitment of commissioners.

Since March, according to the reports, only two commissioners have been in office as seven have retired. The commission is legally required to have nine members to make binding decisions on various issues.

She was asked to explain why she did not notify the President when she realized that the commission lacks a quorum to decide on teachers’ issues. Further, she was put to task to detail the delay in solving various contentious issues affecting the commission.

CEO Nancy Macharia, however, disputed the claims that a lack of quorum affected TSC operations. She also stated that it is not within her mandate to notify the President of the retirement of commissioners.

The news comes as the National Assembly on Wednesday, April 28, approved the appointment of Jamleck Muturi as TSC chairperson and Alfred Oyucho as commissioner.

The teacher shortage in public schools stood at 103,931 as of January this year. Macharia, appearing before the Senate Education Committee, said the shortage exists in primary and post-primary institutions.

According to TSC documents tabled before the committee, post-primary institutions have a shortfall of 57,822 teachers, while primary schools have a deficit of 46,109.

The TSC boss, however, said the commission is trying to bridge the gap through recruitment of interns and replacement of those who exit the service through natural attrition, among other measures.

“The commission, for its part, has endeavored to address teacher shortage across the country in all public institutions by requisition of additional budgetary allocation for employment of new teachers to address teacher shortage for both primary and post-primary institutions,” she said.

Macharia was before the senators to respond to a petition by 16 teachers in Kajiado who complained about being locked out of promotion by the commission.

According to the March petition, the teachers claimed that they have been locked out from leadership by a system introduced by TSC where only teachers who serve in Job Groups L, M, and N are promoted to be headteachers, sub-county directors, and county directors.

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